Hello and welcome to the Green Alliance podcast. We are the charity and think tank that is all about

achieving ambitious leadership for the environment. I'm Sean Spears, Executive Director of Green

Alliance, and in this episode you'll hear highlights from our recent in-conversation event

with the broadcaster and author Tom Heap. Tom and I discussed his latest book, Land Smart,

How to Give People and Nature the Space to Thrive.

The book examines the competing pressures on land use

and relays Tom's conversations with farmers, scientists,

conservationists and even warehouse managers

who are solving the most pressing challenges facing our countryside and the world.

Welcome, Tom. Thank you for joining us. The last report I was involved in producing when I was at CPRE seven years ago was on shaping UK land use.

And the first words in the report were, I think the rhetorical

question, why are we not more interested in the land? And you clearly are interested in the land.

I just wonder if you could say what motivated you to write the book and perhaps a quick overview

of some of its messages. And then we'll drill down into various parts of it. Yeah, sure. Well,

thank you very much for having me on here. I wrote this book because I spent around 25 years looking at issues to do with environment, rural

affairs, science, climate, all those things.

And in recent years, I was particularly struck by how everyone was looking to the land for solutions.

We had the phrase land-based solutions, nature-based solutions and things, in order to solve climate and nature problems in particular.

And at the same time, we have a growing global population.

Whether it's right or wrong, we have a growing demand for meat.

And all these things are putting enormous pressure on land.

So it used to be simple in the past.

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